If there’s something strange
In the neighbourhood
Putin’s gonna call…
Ghostbusters!

If there’s someone gay
Or gender misunderstood
Putin’s gonna call…
Ghostbusters!

He ain’t ‘fraid of no ghost
He ain’t ‘fraid of no ghost

But he’s hearing things
That should not be said
Putin’s gonna call…
Ghostbusters!

A political threat?
Then you’ll end up dead!
Ow, Putin’s gonna call…
Ghostbusters!

Have we butchered the classic Ghostbusters theme song by Ray Parker Jr. just to tenuously link to Vladimir Putin’s human rights record? Yup! But to be fair it’s been ages since we received a good death threat.

Plus, of course, this rather wonderful creation is a VAZ/Lada 2104 estate that has been brilliantly converted into a Soviet Ecto-1, which makes re-writing that song almost mandatory.

We also happen to think it might just be cooler than the original Ghostbusters’ Cadillac ambulance. OK, no it isn’t, but it is a Lada converted into an Ecto-1, which does probably make it the coolest Lada ever.

Flickr’s Tony Bovkoon is the builder who has brought Ghostbusting to Russia, and there’s more to see of his fantastic Lada Ecto-1 on Flickr.

Click the link to call…
Ghostbusters!

Perhaps Mr. Bean’s greatest moment, driving a Mini via string and a mop from a chair mounted on the roof, has featured a here few times in Lego from. None have used this many bricks though!

Certified LEGO Professional Ryan McNaught has used over five thousand pieces to recreate the iconic TV scene, with Bean’s Mini, new armchair, and the man himself all wonderfully captured in brick.

Ryan’s build is part of ‘Brickvention 22’, and a host of other models from the Lego Show – built by a variety of talented creators – join Mr. Bean’s Mini in Ryan’s ‘Brickvention 2022’ album.

Click the link above to take a look at the Mini and the other Brickvention builds, and we’ll be featuring another of our favourites from the show here shortly!

In this TLCB Writer’s opinion, it’s only a matter of time before the dead rise up to feast on the squishy bits of the living.

What we’d want in those inevitably approaching times is a shotgun and an RV, so we could a) shoot at reanimated corpses from the safety of the roof, and b) take a crap in comfort.

Dale in ‘The Walking Dead’ had the right idea, well – until he went for a walk in a field and his squishy bits were pulled out, but had he stayed atop his classic Winnebago he’d have been fine.

Jonas Kramm has recreated Dale and his RV pre-zombie dinner, and a dead-good job he’s done too! All details are present and correct including the roll-out awning, radio arial, roof-mounted parasol and deck-chair arrangement, and a mini-figure Dale with shotgun.

Best of all, Jonas has made instructions available so you can recreate it too, meaning at least a mini-figure or two in your collection will be safe from the certain zombie apocalypse that’s coming.

…is the sound a helicopter makes. Also Batman.

This is the ‘Batcopter’ from the Batman TV series, which was a little more, er… ‘festive’ than the dark and secretive Batman we know from the 2010s. Still, if every time you fought crime giant bubble writing appeared shouting ‘KAPOW!’, there was probably little point being stealthy.

Andre Pinto’s ‘Batcopter’ captures the camp flamboyance of the ’60s caped crusader brilliantly, and there’s more to see at his ‘Batcopter TV’ album on Flickr. Dananananana…

If 2020 had a word (aside from ‘dumpsterfire’), it would be ‘mask’. Enacted to protect the vulnerable and elderly from an unknown and deadly disease, laws requiring the wearing of masks were widely adopted across the world, much to the anger of a small but very vocal minority of morons.

It’s also rather ironic that the ideology displaying said anger about being asked to wear a mask for protection seemed to have no qualms with carrying a gun… for protection. Sigh.

Anyway, with winter approaching and COVID on the rise again, we may have to get used to another round of mask wearing, which leads us neatly-and-in-no-way-tenuously on to these rather good creations by nickgreat.

Suggested by a reader, Nick’s models recreate the vehicles from the mid-’80s cartoon TV show ‘M.A.S.K’, in which the ‘Mobile Armoured Strike Kommand’ (because ‘M.A.S.C’ wasn’t as cool) fought ‘V.E.N.O.M’, the Vicious Evil Network of Mayhem, whilst wearing super-powered helmets (or masks. Ah… it all makes sense).

And if that isn’t the ideal marketing recipe for a range of plastic toys we don’t know what is.

With vehicles such as the ‘Rhino’, ‘Switchblade’, ‘Thunderhawk’ and ‘Jackhammer’ – that could transform into fighter jets, gun turrets, and hydroplanes – plus a protagonist named ‘Matt Trakker’, you’d be forgiven for thinking M.A.S.K might be the most American thing since excessive patriotism, but it was in fact French, and animated in Japan.

Nick has created seven of the transforming vehicles from the ’80s TV show superbly in mini-figure scale, three of which are pictured here, and you find the full array of ‘M.A.S.K’ models at his album on Bricksafe.

Put on your mask and take a look via the link above, or alternatively shout angrily about masks being part of a global conspiracy or something, depending upon your IQ.

This steam locomotive might look familiar to you… Built by Rogers Locomotive and Machine works in the 1890s, locomotive ‘No.3’ was a coal and later oil-fired steam locomotive used for various steam locomotive things; hauling freight, transporting passengers, and constructing various railroads across California during the early 20th century.

After three decades of service Locomotive No.3’s owners, the Sierra Railway Company, went bankrupt during the Great Depression, and it was laid up for fifteen years in a siding. The locomotive somehow dodged being melted down for the war effort, and after the Second World War ended it was acquired for film use, whereupon ‘No.3’ began a career that saw it star in around forty movies and TV shows, including ‘High Noon’, TLCB favourite ‘The Great Race’, and – perhaps most famously – ‘Back to the Future, Part III‘.

Restored in the 2010s, Locomotive No.3 is still running today, and thus may yet add even more stardust to an already incredible legacy. This wonderful recreation by firefabric of Eurobricks captures probably the world’s most seen steam train beautifully, and it includes a LEGO Powered-Up motor and LED lights hidden inside.

There’s much to more of the model to see, including full build details, at the Eurobricks discussion forum, and you can step into one of almost forty movie sets via the link in the text above.

Taking advantage of the new year sales is not something this TLCB Writer is inclined to do. Mr. Bean on the other hand, was very excited at the prospect of grabbing himself a bargain. Cue one of the most brilliant vehicular capers in TV history, wherein an ingenious Bean attempts to transport rather more than he should home via his British Leyland Mini. Flickr’s Tomáš Novák is the latest builder to create a brick-built Bean atop a bright green Mini, and there’s more to see of his homage to TV gold at his photostream. Click the link above to push the mop onto the accelerator!

This is the ‘Kookie T’, one of the all-time seminal hot rods, and the inspiration for very probably a thousand hot rods that have followed. Built by hot rodder and actor Norm Grabowski, the Kookie-T exploded into magazines during the mid-’50s, creating such a stir that the car was chosen to make a starring appearance in the ’50s TV show ’77 Sunset Strip’.

Norm’s custom car prowess led to further TV and movie contracts, and eventually allowed him to appear in several productions himself, acting in films including ‘The Monkees’, ‘Batman’, ‘The Towering Inferno’, ‘The Cannonball Run’ and… er, ‘Sex Kittens Go to College’, amongst others.

This fantastic replica of the iconic hot rod comes from previous bloggee Andre Pinto, who has recreated the Kookie-T brilliantly in brick form. Stunning presentation matches the excellent brickwork, and there’s more to see at Andre’s ‘Norm Grabowski’s Kookie Car’ Flickr album. Click the link to take a look, unless you’re already Googling that last film title. You are aren’t you…

If the Michael Bay ‘Transformers’ movies were directed by the people that make ‘Bob the Builder’, the result might look a little something like this.

Replacing angry alien robots with, er… cute alien robots, Angus MacLane has optimised the adorability of the leader of the Autobots, and there’s more to see of his charming ‘Sub-Optimus Prime’ transforming truck on Flickr.

Click the link above for the cutest robot in disguise you’ll see today.

In 1972, a crack commando unit was sent to prison by a military court for a crime they didn’t commit. These men promptly escaped from a maximum security stockade to the Los Angeles underground, whereupon they bought a GMC van and a C4 Corvette, painted a giant red stripe down the side of each, and were somehow completely untraceable to the government.

No, we don’t understand how that works either, but no matter, because it allows us to publish this brilliant brick-built Chevrolet Corvette C4 (complete with a giant red stripe), as driven by the ‘A-Team’s Arthur Templeton “Faceman” Peck. Or someone rather more visually appealing.

Flickr’s László Torma is the builder behind it, instructions are available, and you can head to the Los Angeles underground via the link in the text above.

We’ve not seen the TV show ‘Supernatural’. It sounds like ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’, only without Buffy the Vampire Slayer. And we only watched that show for, well… Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Still, whilst it’s missing the obvious key ingredient, ‘Supernatural’ does feature a cool car; an awesome black ’67 Chevrolet Impala.

This top-quality Model Team example of that car comes from previous bloggee Szunyogh Balázs, who has constructed and captured his Supernatural Impala model beautifully.

There are four opening doors, a detailed engine under an opening hood, an accurate brick-built drivetrain, and the trunk opens to reveal a weapons rack for hunting ghosts and ghouls. Although it might just be the content of the average American’s trunk.

There’s more of the model to see at both Eurobricks and Flickr, and you can take look via the links above if – unlike us – you haven’t already got distracted Googling pictures of Buffy the Vampire Sla…

Breaking Bad, aka The Best Thing That’s Ever Been On Television, nailed its car choices. Walter White’s Aztek, the Fleetwood RV meth lab, Mike Ehrmantraut’s old sedans, Gus Fring’s understated Volvo… each was perfectly cast.

The final vehicle in the series was this, a 1981 Chevrolet El Camino, its owner recently deceased, used in Jesse Pinkman’s escape and subsequent movie of the same name.

Constructed by previous bloggee Jakub Marcisz, this Model Team recreation of Breaking Bad’s last car includes opening doors and hood, working steering, a detailed interior, and a realistic engine, with lots more to see on Flickr.

Building instructions are available, you can click the link above to take a look, and here to see that final scene.

It’s been over a decade since Breaking Bad (AKA The Best Thing That’s Ever Been on TV Ever) concluded, yet the seminal show is still inspiring Lego builds. Cue Nick Kleinfelder and this wonderful recreation of the infamous 1986 Fleetwood Bounder RV methlab that starred throughout out the series.

Complete with mini-figure Walter White and Jesse Pinkman, Nick’s cooked up a model of incredible detail, using a complex formula of ingenious building techniques. You can see how Nick’s done it at his photostream, and you can jump to the New Mexico desert via the link above.

The famous words of TV detective ‘Columbo’, uttered just before his inevitable cracking of the case. Produced throughout the ’70s, and then again in the late ’80s through 1990s, Columbo was (and still is) a stable of American television, and often cited as one of the greatest TV characters ever created.

Perfectly matched to the Los Angeles homicide detective’s shambling crumpled appearance was his car, an old Peugeot 403 convertible, which was never washed and – like Columbo – very often smoking.

Just 500 or so 403 convertibles were made, making Columbo’s choice a very rare vehicle (contrary to the sedan, station wagon and pick-up variants, which were produced in their hundreds of thousands), with two or three units used in the production of the TV show.

This lovely recreation of the Peugeot 403 convertible comes from previous bloggee SvenJ., and captures Columbo’s car beautifully in 1:32 brick form. Several images are available and you can find them all at Sven’s Flickr album; click the link above to crack the case. Just one more thing…

Even demons need wheels. Well, at least according to Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman’s 1990 novel ‘Good Omens’, which recently became a hit for Amazon Prime.

Crowley (Bentley-driving demon) and Aziraphale (angel, guardian of the Eastern Gate) have become accustomed to their comfortable lives in England, so it is with some alarm that they learn of the arrival of the infant anti-christ, heralding both the end-times and the imminent loss of their cushy lives.

An unlikely partnership follows, as the pair attempt to sabotage the end-times for the good of… themselves, with Crowley’s 1926 semi-sentient Bentley Coupe playing a starring role in the TV adaptation.

Cue Daniel Church‘s superb brick-built rendition of the demonic Bentley, both constructed and presented beautifully, which you can take a closer look at via his photostream. Click the link above to join Crowley for a spot of lunch, followed by searching for the notorious son of Satan.

‘Breaking Bad’ featured some perfectly cast vehicles over its five season run. Walter White’s Pontiac Aztek, the Fleetwood Bounder meth-lab, Gus Fring’s Volvo wagon, and this; Jesse Pinkman’s ’82 Chevrolet Monte Carlo lowrider.

Shot up during Tuco Salamanca’s well-deserved season two demise, Jesse’s ‘THE CAPN’ license-plated Chevy was a fixture from the opening episode, and has been recreated brilliantly in brick form by previous bloggee Jakub Marcisz.

Complete with ‘furry’ dice, hydraulics control switches, fist and Mary figurine ornaments, and a ‘THE CAPN’ license plate, Jakub’s build wonderfully captures details of the TV car, and also includes opening doors, hood and trunk, a realistic engine, and a superbly replicated interior.

There’s more of the model to see at both Flickr and the Eurobricks forum, including links to building instructions, and you find full details and all the imagery via the links above.

And now for something that every one of our British readers will immediately recognise, the optimistically named Reliant Regal Supervan. Most famously wearing ‘Trotters Independent Trading Co’ livery, the Supervan was one the stars of the cult comedy ‘Only Fools and Horses’, in which it carried all manner of dodgy wares around Peckham, including – in this case – blow-up dolls that took their brief rather literally…

Newcomer BobKickflip is the builder behind this one, who has replicated it, its iconic ‘Trotters’ livery, and its payload of explosive replica females brilliantly. There’s more of the model to see, including a link building instructions, at Bob’s photostream, and you can head to Hookie Street via the link above.

After two decades mucking about in cars, and a global audience of millions, Clarkson, Hammond and May have finally hung up their driving gloves. Well, May has. The others probably didn’t wear them.

Their final episode of ‘The Grand Tour’ – Amazon’s monstrously expensive continuation of BBC Top Gear – aired last year, in which the team returned to the location of their first ever road-trip adventure, undertaken some twenty years earlier.

A 1970s Lancia Montecarlo, Triumph Stag, and Ford Capri starred alongside the human trio, likely also completing their last ever drive, such is the nature of television production.

They live on in Lego form though, courtesy of NV_Carmocs (photographed by Studworks), who has recreated each car beautifully in Speed Champions scale. Accurate registration plates, 3D-printed wheels, and a brick-built animal skull on the Lancia enhance the accuracy, and NV_Carmocs has made building instructions available too, should you wish to relive ‘The Grand Tour’s last adventure at home. Have One for the Road via the link above.

The news is currently filled with the economic shenanigans of a certain orange President, including the sudden announcement that – from next week – the cost of all cars not made in the U.S (as well as lots that are) will rise significantly. Because said elderly Twitter addict doesn’t understand that it’s not the seller that pays a tariff, but the buyer…

Thus in today’s post we’re featuring a Donald that’s the antithesis of his POTUS namesake, being witty, wry, warm and charming. And probably more economically competent. Feathered cartoon humanoid Donald Duck is at the wheel of his 313 Belchfire Runabaout, wonderfully recreated in 6-wide Fabuland form by previous bloggee Sven J.

A removable roof and flip-out rumble seat both feature, and best of all Sven has released free building instructions for the design. So in contrast to Trump’s latest executive order, here’s a car you don’t have to pay extra for.

There’s more to see at both Flickr and the Eurobricks forum, and you can get quacking via the links above.